Page 18 of Crossed By the Stars
“Good morning,” she said, waving her iPad at me. “I’d like to go through the increased security protocols with you.”
“I trust you,” I told her more because I wanted to trust her than because I actually did. I wanted to believe she could keep me safe, but I also knew the truth. No matter how good Rana was at her job, theKyodainawere better. They always got their mark.
“At a minimum, you need to revisit the hand signals that I gave you originally. You saw how beneficial it was to Cillian and Dax last night. If something had gone wrong in the car with your father, you could have put your hand on the window, palm out, and I would have known to come in and get you.”
She handed me a piece of paper with a list of motions and meanings that I’d have to memorize and practice in order for them to look natural. I slid the paper into my bag. “I’ll look them over.”
“Jada?”
“I promise. I will look at them. I’m not blowing you off.”
She stared at me for a long moment before giving me a curt nod.
“You’re going straight to theVioletteoffices this morning?” she asked.
“I want to make a stop in Japantown to get a new teapot forObaasan. When I texted her last night, she said the nurse had broken hers,” I replied.
My grandmother had seemed more upset than I’d ever known her to be. Although she wouldn’t admit it, I was sure it was because thekyusuhad been a wedding gift from my grandfather.
As we left the apartment, Nyra and Bobby joined us, leaving another man I didn’t know to stand guard at the apartment. The four of us journeyed to the underground garage in a staggered formation with them checking around each corner before allowing me to move again. It felt ridiculous. Over-the-top. It made me feel guilty that they could be collateral damage in a war between me, my father, and whoever was coming after me.
Once in the car and on the way to the tea shop, I texted Violet. I knew I needed to tell them about the threats. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to her or Dawson because of me, but I also didn’t want to bring this to their feet if I wasn’t sure Dawson was also being targeted. The note left for me had felt personal, written in Japanese on ancient paper with akaikendrawn on it. Dawson wouldn’t have understood any of it. This revenge was coming for the ultimate betrayer…and that was me.
ME: I’m sorry I worried you, Baioretto. You didn’t need to sic Armaud on me.
The nickname I’d used for Violet?the Japanese word for the color?lodged in my chest. I missed her. She’d only been gone a month, butit felt like my world had changed yet again in those few weeks. The mile markers along the road of my life were all painful ones. The sweet moments in between them were obscured by the larger tragedies.
Violet was one of those beautiful moments. After I’d found out about my father’s true nature, I’d done everything I could to tarnish the Mori name and had been kicked out of every New York high schoolOtosanwould allow me to attend in the process. I’d been shuffled off to New London, Connecticut and enrolled in an online school. That was where I’d met Violet. She’d looked at my life and only seen the glamour of it—traveling around the world, shuffling between chauffeurs and penthouses, and wearing a wardrobe full of clothes that screamed runway. I’d looked at her and seen everything I’d once been. Innocent and idealistic. Driven to please my family. Our friendship was an unexpected dichotomy of light and dark, but Violet was the reason I’d graduated at all. I hadn’t wanted to let her down in our study sessions. I’d wanted to live up to the look in her eye.
We’d almost arrived at the tea shop in Japantown by the time Violet texted back.
BAIORETTO: How “sic” did it get?
I snorted.
ME: Get your mind out of the gutter, my friend. Not all of us are on our honeymoon, spending our days lost in skin.
BAIORETTO: You’re making me worry even more now. Since when do you NOT have getting down and dirty with a hot guy on your mind?
ME: Do you classify Armaud as hot then? Whatever will Dawson think when I tell him?
BAIORETTO: Dawson knows his position in my life is completely secure.
ME: Go “secure” your husband, and stop worrying about me.
BAIORETTO: I will always worry about you. And Dawson and I don’t play that way.
I laughed, my chest easing slightly.
Bobby parked in a red zone, and Nyra climbed out of the car first, clearing the shop before giving Rana the all-clear to take me inside. The smell hit me like a balm to the soul. Tea and incense. It filled me with memories. Peaceful moments withObaasan.
When I’d turned thirteen,Obaasanhad spent a year training me on the intricacies of the tea ceremony. At the time, I’d thought it was a way for me to impress my father. To get him to see me…acknowledge me. I’d gladly participated in her lessons.Obaasanhad laughed gently at my mistakes as I’d made them, encouraging me to try again. The ceremony was full of intricate steps, a sort of dance performed by the hostess for her guests as a way of honoring them.
After my fourteenth birthday, she’d deemed me ready for a trial with actual guests, and I’d waited excitedly forKaasanandOtosanto come to New York again so I could pay tribute to them. But the day of the ceremony,Otosanhadn’t shown up, even though he’d been in the apartment. Instead, he’d met with a man, who I now knew to be his regional boss on the East Coast. OnlyKaasanandObaasanhad come to watch, but theirs wasn’t the attention I’d been seeking. They weren’t the ones I’d idolized. I’d wanted my father to smile at me with pride, to touch my shoulder and look at me with respect the way others looked at him. It was barely a year later when I discovered the respect he had was built on fear.
I stopped myself from going down the rabbit hole of those darker memories by focusing on the teapots in front of me. I explored the aisles while Rana shadowed me as if some villain was going to jump from the shelves. I tried to find a sense of balance and calm as my hands ran over a range of teapots from cast irontetsubinsto volcanic clay-formedkyusus.
“Can I help you find something?” the woman behind the counter asked.
